Only Two
by ensiathe3rd
Summary: Something went wrong. Nothing new. But this time, it cost them dearly. Normally, Adam had the strength of ten men, but this weight was too much for even him to bear alone. Adam, Bree, Chase, and Leo once thought themselves an unstoppable and inseparable team, that is, until someone decided to prove them wrong.
1. To Break

**disclaimer; I do not own lab rats**

**an; check out my profile page, I have a question for you guys. Ensia**

Two Promises

Two years. He was trapped in that place for two years. A part of him thought it had been longer, somewhere closer to two hundred years, but then again he could remember the day he was caught like it was only yesterday.

He remembered eating the poor excuse that his captors dared to call food and then blaring alarms. The next thing he knew he was staring up at a white ceiling from a hospital bed. The scene was familiar to him but it was vastly different. For the first time in a long time, he smelt clean. Once upon a time he would have hated the smell, but now it was just a relief. He arms and legs weren't restrained by anything except excessive bandages covering most of his abused flesh. He wasn't in any pain that certainly was a new one. His captors had some weird obsession with pain. There was one captor who would always say, "The only constant in life is pain and the only certainty is suffering, either live with it or die from it, in the long run it doesn't matter anyway, in the end we all die." Adam would never forget those words as they had been engraved into his very soul; that voice would haunt Adam until the day he died. Calm and slow as he told Adam how he would suffer that day.

Time had long since meant anything to Adam, but he assumed that he wasn't awake long before a middle aged man unfamiliar to Adam in some sort of uniform he couldn't place came into Adam's room and sat down on one of the chairs by his bed. Adam saw his lips move but the sound had a hard time registering for Adam. Adam could only slightly comprehend a little less than half of what the man said. After all that had happened, men in uniform made him nervous. The only thing Adam really picked up on was one word, "liberated," Adam remembered that from once upon a time when Chase tried to tutor him. He was free. Adam was free of that prison. Waves of relief washed over him. He wanted to cry out in joy, but something stopped him. He faded back in and tried to actually listen to what the older man was saying. The man said something about contacting his family and Adam faded back out again. He was happy, he could go home, see Leo, Mr. Davenport, and Tasha, and eat some real food. But there was something missing in all of that. Adam's mind was never filled to the brim with pressing thoughts and this was no exception. In fact, there were only two things occupying Adam's thoughts, and he couldn't wait any longer, "Can you tell me where my siblings are?" His voice was hoarse from disuse and even Adam had to admit, lying in a hospital bed thinner than he has ever been and covered in bandages, he didn't command much attention anymore. Not even a mummy joke could fix this. Only the knowledge of his siblings' wellbeing could help. If they were okay, then whatever might have happened in the last two years didn't matter to him. He hadn't seen them since the day he was captured and the last time they were together, well it didn't look good. The only blessing was that Leo wasn't with them, he was safe.

The man stopped mid-sentence and stared at the twenty year old man in front of him. Adam had listened to Chase's and Mr. Davenport's techno lingo enough times to recognize confusion when he saw it, "Excuse me?"

It was hard for Adam to breathe, and the mounting frustration made it hard for him to remain calm, but he pushed on, "My little brother and sister. They were captured at the same time as me. If I'm free from the compound, then they must be too. Where are they? I need to talk to them."

The confusion on the older man's face shifted to pity. Adam hated that look. His eyes burned, though with tears or his heat vision, he wasn't sure. Though the other man's eyes not shifting to fear and the fact that he hadn't been able to use his bionics in a long time lead him to believe the former. The man in uniform sighed and reached out to touch Adam's shoulder. Adam flinched back at the contact and the other man took his hand back, "I'm sorry son, there were no female captives. From what we have been able to decode from the main computer, the people who kidnapped you were even harsher to the females they captured than the males. I'll spare you the details, but it's a miracle a healthy young man such as yourself lasted as long as you did. You're sister probably wasn't as lucky."

Lucky. That's the word for it. Adam knew how cruel of a word that was. His eyes blurred as he tried not to break down in front of this stranger, Adam didn't catch his name. Bree wasn't lucky enough to last two years in that hell, wasn't lucky enough to be tortured and experimented on, starved and forced into backbreaking labor or isolated from the people who cared about her for two seemingly endless years. No, if Bree was treated even worse than Adam, then maybe she was lucky, lucky enough to… "No!" Adam clenched his fists, but the weakness of his grip only made him angrier. The stranger looked startled at his outburst but settled down and continued to look at Adam with that hated look of resigned pity, "No, you're lying! She can't be gone, she just can't be. Please, no, she's not…. Please no." What little strength he had left him, tears ran down Adam's cheeks as he practically begged the man in front of him to tell him that it was just a cruel joke and his siblings were fine. A lump that was heavy for eighteen year old Adam settled in his throat. Of everything he had done in his relatively short life, there had never been anything he had wanted to do less but he needed to know and he barely managed to choke out his next question, "And what about my brother?"

There was a moment where Adam thought the man wasn't going to tell him. "I don't know for certain. We have a lot of young men who have yet to be identified." Adam's heart soared with hope for half a second, "But I won't lie to you kid, if your brother was captured with you, the odds aren't good." Adam's heart dropped back down and an overwhelming feeling of despair engulfed him. "I'm sorry, son, but I promise you we will do everything in our power to get you the answers you need to move on."

"It doesn't matter anyway" The words scarred into his brain came to the surface once more, "I'm the oldest. I was supposed to protect them. I failed and now? I'm fine and they're…" once again Adam couldn't say the word. How could he possibly tell Mr. Davenport? Leo? "No! They can't be. If anybody could have figured out how to survive, it's my siblings. They're alive, you just haven't found them. There must have been another facility. They must be there. Go there and save them." Adam knew he was grasping at straws, but it was all he could do. He wasn't strong enough for anything else. He didn't want them to be alive, he **needed** them to be. There was no other option for him.

This time the man didn't flinch at the broken boy's outburst. He did however turn his gaze away from Adam and rub the back of his head for a brief moment before facing Adam once more, "There was another facility. About six months ago one of their experiments went wrong and the resulting explosion caught the attention of the local authorities. They saved who they could, but whoever was in charge didn't seem to have a problem with ensuring that there were no living witnesses. There wasn't much left over for us to salvage, but what Intel we could collect brought us to the facility where you were." He took a deep breath, "I looked over the information collected myself but a lot of it was lost during the raid. I talked to most of the survivors personally. To the best of my knowledge, there is no Chase or Bree on any of my lists nor is there any record of what happened to them in the scraps of Intel we gathered."

"You're wrong." Adam's jaw was set, there was no mistaking the young man's seriousness. 18 year old Adam had never been this serious, but 18 year old Adam was long gone. "You must have over looked something because you didn't know they needed to be found." In all his years including the last two he had never felt as much pain as he did now, "It doesn't matter anyway." Adam made to sit up, "I'm better now and I'll find them myself."

Adam made to get out of the hospital bed but was stopped by a firm hand on his shoulder. Two years ago, he would have been able to break out of the grip without so much as a passing thought, but now after two seconds fighting it, Adam was dizzy and had to lie back again. "You can't expect to be at full form in just a couple of days after everything you've been through, especially when you've spent that time unconscious. Rest. The entire staff here will do all it can to get you back on your feet as quickly as possible. But that will only work if you cooperate with them. Meanwhile, I will be doing all I can to ensure that the people responsible for this will be brought to justice." Seeing that Adam was no longer fighting him, the older man released his hold. "I know this is a lot to take in, and beyond unfair, but you need to stay with us." Adam didn't respond, "I have to go and talk to some of the other patients, can I trust you to stay put for the time being?" Adam numbly nodded, he didn't think he had any fight left in him. The man gently smiled, "Atta boy." He reached into his one of his pockets and pulled out a white card and cave it to Adam, "Here is my number, call me if you need me, or are ready to talk. Any information you might have could be of great help" Adam could only nod and numbly take the card that was handed to him.

All he could feel was pain, sad considering he thought he just got rid of it. The only constant in life is pain. All he wanted to do was rip out his heart and chuck it across the room just to end the agony. The only certainty is suffering. But deep down he knew he wasn't strong enough, not now at least. The other man bid him farewell and left, but once again, Adam wasn't listening.

Gone, they were both gone. Adam couldn't wrap his head around it. They had close calls in the past, but they had always managed to pull through. But this? This couldn't be reality. Adam didn't think he could ever accept this as reality. The days of his captivity had long since blurred together in a never ending cycle of pain, hunger and loneliness. Either live with it. Without hesitation he would do it all again and once more, just to have them with him. No kind of pain his captors could ever dish out could hurt as much as this. But the cold cruel truth made itself known. Was it right for him to have wanted them to suffer as he did for as long as he did? Bree and Chase were strong, but not nearly as strong as him. What it came down to was that, Adam was trapped between wanting them to have died to avoid suffering or suffered to avoid dying. It tore him apart. Or you die from it. Tears raced down his face, but Adam wasn't sure if they were from sorrow or anger. In the long run, it doesn't matter anyway. Adam couldn't change what had happened, but what he could do was make the people responsible pay and pay dearly for what they did to him and his siblings and all the other innocent people they captured and tortured and killed. He didn't care if it took him two or two hundred more years. He would do it. His next words albeit whispered filled the silent room, "Bree, Chase, I'll get us justice, I promise." and that was a promise he intended to keep no matter the cost. In the end, we all die.


	2. To Make

**disclaimer; i do not own lab rats**

**AN; Thanks for your patience. Ensia**

Two Deals

March 10, 2017

Adam couldn't focus. Or else, he couldn't focus on anything but what he absolutely didn't want to focus on. There was a TV in his room, but it only had one channel and it was playing some sort of afternoon news show in some language Adam didn't understand. Even if he could, all noise seemed far away or nonexistent and his vision faded in and out of focus. When the host started interviewing a boy, Sean something, that reminded Adam painfully of Chase, he couldn't continue and turned the machine off. There wasn't much for him to do in his room. Mostly, he ran through what went wrong the day they were captured, but in every possible scenario the outcome was the same. Adam wasn't the smart one in his family. Chase and Bree, heck even Leo could have figured something out, but they weren't here. Questions upon questions hit Adam upside the head, but he had no answers for them. The pain he was in would fade out only to crash back down on him whenever his thoughts turned back to his missing siblings. _Missing. _Adam didn't believe, and he wouldn't believe that these people stopped at two compounds. Call it intuition, call it denial or flat out call it stupid, Adam didn't care, he knew that somehow Bree and Chase were still alive somewhere. He had to save them.

The only good thing about that day was that for the first time in what felt like forever he actually ate something that could be considered food. True it was a bowl chicken broth that Adam wasn't even able to finish. Man, he must have lost his touch. After being nearly starved to death, Adam would've thought that he'd be able to eat more. The lady that had brought it to him told him it was normal. Adam hadn't responded, he felt like he had nothing left to say. Silent, small appetite, weak, once upon a time those words would never in a million years been used to describe the twenty year old, but a million years came quicker than Bree could run, it was only two.

Adam was never much one for thinking, but it was all he could do now. Chase would have been proud. He twirled the white card in his fingers, he had already read it so many times he could recite it back from memory. Joseph Martin, the man who was going to try and hunt down the people responsible for his and his family's pain. It wasn't fair. Some random stranger shouldn't have the right to take these people down. He should. But he wondered if he could. Adam looked down at his hands and flexed his fingers, he felt the familiar tugging on his muscles that he always associated with his super strength. It was weak, but Adam was thrilled he could at least feel it. At least one thing was going in his favor.

He turned to the right and stared at the open door into the hallway. It was pretty quiet, but Adam knew there was no way it was empty. The compound he was at, had at least one hundred prisoners at a time. Adam knew none of them, and even if he had, they cycled through so quickly it would have been a useless endeavor to try and make friends. Adam hated himself for thinking it, but it was the truth, and there was nothing he could do to try and change that. But he could help now. He _would _help now. If Mr. Martin was interviewing everyone then Adam figured that he'd still be at least in the hospital. Adam shifted his attention from the door to the floor just behind the crib bars that Adam never understood. He swallowed and took a deep breath. Then he put his hand against the cold metal and pushed down. It gave underneath his fingers, Adam allowed himself to smile as tears pooled in his eyes. After two years of being denied the very definition of who he was, it was like being reunited with an old friend. It could never make up for Bree or Chase but at least he didn't lose everything.

He stared at the cold floor below and not giving himself time to rethink his decision, all the while angry that he actually thought the decision through a first time, he swung his legs around and placed his bare feet on the cold floor. He slowly put his weight on them until he was standing. He was almost proud of his accomplishment. Then the world tilted to the left. Or was it the right? It didn't matter anyway as a few seconds later it tilted the other direction. Black entered his vision and Adam slunk to the ground. An alarm blared in his ears. Adam tensed his muscles, he may not be as strong as he once was but there was no way he was going to go back to The Place.

A young woman a little older than Adam ran into the room dressed in scrubs. Upon seeing Adam on the floor she put a hand to her heart, and calmed down. She rushed over to one of the monitors and quickly shut off the alarm. She turned to Adam and knelt down to help him up. She was cautious about how she moved around him. Adam had a hard time registering the fear in her eyes until he realized that his muscles were still coiled, ready to strike out at anything he deemed a threat. His thoughts were going a mile a minute and he couldn't keep up. His heart thudded in his ears and his breathing quickened. Stop thinking. Empty mind, empty mind, oh God, he missed that. He met her dark green eyes. She smiled softly at him. "Okay Adam, I need you to listen to me, you can do that right?"

_"Why can't you just listen to orders!?"_

He nods, but it feels like there is a curtain separating him from reality. His thoughts, his memories, keep beating him down before he can pull himself to the other side. He fights with all of his might to hold on to the girl in front of him. Her gentle voice, her eyes, her smile. In this moment, she's the only thing he can believe is real. "Okay here's what I need you to do. I need you to breathe." Didn't she know he was trying? There was no air in the room. She must have seen his struggle. "Follow me." She started taking deep breaths in through her nose and releasing slowly through her mouth. Adam couldn't do it, the last time he followed that order was the last time he saw his siblings. He did however listen to the steady sounds of her breathing and focused in on the white noise. It calmed him down. His breathing slowed and he coughed. His chest ached, and he was still having trouble bringing oxygen into his lungs. His muscles lost their tension and he slumped forward, all the strength he had been building that day wasted, and he was back to square one.

Tears of anger and shame pooled in Adam's eyes, "I'm sorry," but he wasn't talking to her.

She didn't seem to notice. She shook her head and lightly waved him off, "Don't be. I may not be an expert but I do know that what you're feeling, whatever you're feeling, is perfectly normal. It's nothing to be ashamed of or sorry for."

The young woman was starting to come into focus and Adam fought with all he had to keep her there. He could feel his mind trying to drag him back, but he was afraid of that place as long as he lived he didn't want to go back to the thoughts, the memories, the regrets, the pain. She didn't understand, Adam knew she couldn't, but she was real. "Thank You."

She nodded. "Don't mention it. It's what I'm here for. Now how about you let me help you up?" She held out her hand to him. She was smaller than him. Not as much as his siblings were, _are_, but he still doubted that she would be able to help him. Slowly, carefully, cautiously, he took the offered hand. Her fingers were ice cold, and as soon as he touched the smooth skin, Adam almost pulled back. He forced himself to hold on as his heart raced at the contact. For the first time in two years, he actually had skin to skin contact with someone who wasn't trying to cause him pain. It was strange to say the least.

Slowly she pulled his arm around her shoulders and with a surprising amount of strength helped him to his feet and onto the bed. He let her and offered no resistance. Numbly, he let go of her hand, and the crushing loneliness returned full force.

She stared at the ruined piece of metal that made up the bar, and shook her head in what Adam could only guess was disappointment. She sat down on the chair next to the bed, "What were you after, Adam?"

He ignored the oddity that she knew his name without him ever saying it. He flipped the card in his fingertips, "I wanted to find him."

She tilted her head, "Who?" She considered the card in his hand. "Mr. Martin?"

He nodded, "I needed to talk to him."

"Okay then, I can get him for you. You really shouldn't be straining yourself so soon in your recovery."

He mumbled, "I don't have time for that."

She leaned forward, "Sorry, I didn't catch that."

"Nothing." This whole thing was a waste of his time, he needed to get out. He needed to help Bree and Chase. He needed to take down the people responsible.

She rubbed her knees and looked away. The young woman bit her lip before turning back to Adam, "Alrighty then, if you can just stay put, I can go get Mr. Martin. Deal?" Adam nodded in her general direction. She stood up and gave him a hard look. Adam shifted under her gaze, "Okay, I'll be right back. Stay put."

Natalee smiled softly and dashed out of the room. Adam was once again left alone. He had time to ensure himself that there actually were thirty-six tiles on the ceiling when the girl with green eyes walked back into the room, Joseph Martin trailing behind her. The man had at some point changed out of his military uniform into jeans and a t-shirt. He didn't look half as scary as he did before. The pair paused at the door, and she whispered something Adam couldn't hear. Joseph put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a hard look, she nodded and turned to Adam. She brushed her hair behind her ear and gave him a small smile and wave before turning and walking away. Joseph watched her walk away before walking into the room.

He was cautious and slow as if Adam might break, "Hey, Natalee said you wanted to see me?"

So, her name was Natalee? Doesn't matter. Adam schooled his expression into one of control and nonsense. He should have been surprised at how easy it was. "I want in."

Joseph frowned, "In what exactly."

Adam was getting angrier, "You said you were hunting down the people who hurt my siblings. I want in."

Joseph took a seat beside Adam, "Son, it's not that simple."

"Why can't it be?" Adam has been told his whole life that things weren't as simple as he made them out to be. He was sick of it. There was no sense in it. "I'm Adam Davenport. One of the bionic teens, I have abilities and information that you need."

Joseph didn't look surprised at this information, but continued to look at Adam with concern, "You're also mad."

"I'm not crazy!"

Joseph put his hands up in a calming motion, "Not crazy, traumatized yes, but not crazy. I'm sorry, poor choice of words. You're angry, son." He put his hands down when Adam stopped looking like he was going to lash out, "In my experience, anger is dangerous, it gets people hurt. It makes you do things that you wouldn't normally do. I know it's tempting, I know you want to help take these people down. But for the safety of a lot of people, I can't let you do that."

"Well, what do you expect me to do?"

"Go home, get a therapist, reconnect with your family…"

"They took my family!" Adam was breathing really hard, "They hurt them and countless other people. I'm going to take them down whether you help me or not."

"I can't give you the magic answer to this, but what I do know is that hurting them will not bring them back, nor will it help you."

"I have to do this."

"You have to take the time to recover."

"Sir, the last time I saw my brother he was on the ground and bleeding, the last time I saw my sister, I fell unconscious while she was fighting alone with a broken arm that _I _gave her. I then spent two years, useless, while they suffered for my failure to protect them. And if I'm right, they have been doing this to uncountable numbers of innocent people for much longer. And now that I'm out, you want me to sit on the sidelines like a good boy, while more families like mine are torn apart and scarred. I can't do that. Most of my life I was raised to be a hero. Let me be a hero. Please."

Joseph rubbed the back of his head and sighed. Then he looked long and hard at Adam. "Can you promise that you can stay calm? No matter what happens, can you promise me that?"

"No" Adam knew there was no sense in lying. "But I can try."

"And if I tell you to run will you?"

"I'll certainly give it a good thought."

"You aren't making such a good case for yourself."

"I know." Adam tried to swallow the lump in his throat with little success. "I can't say that this isn't personal, because it is. I know what can happen when things get personal. He tried to kill me and my family multiple times. Almost succeeded too." Adam looked at his hands and flexed his fingers. "I can't promise that I won't let this get to me, but I do know this is something I have to do. I promise you that I will try."

Joseph rubbed his face. "If I let you in on this, whatever we uncover, I can guarantee you won't like it."

"I know."

"This isn't just some villain trying to take over the world, these are scores of radicals who thrive on destruction. And they are growing in staggering numbers each day. This is bigger than anything you have ever dealt with."

"I know." A part of Adam hoped it was. The bigger it was, the more likely there were other facilities, and the more facilities there were; the longer Adam could hold on to a shred of hope that his siblings were still out there somewhere. He knew it was unlikely, but the denial clawed at his heart and he wasn't ready to let it go. For now, the thing he wanted most was to bring the people responsible down any way he had to.

Adam could tell he was wearing the man down as Joseph kept trying to convince him to change his mind, "I can't promise your safety."

"I don't expect you to. I'm a hero, danger comes with the territory." Not that Adam really cared about his safety anymore.

Joseph sighed, "A week." Adam looked up in confusion, "Take a week to recover. Let the staff take care of you and heal what they can, after that, if you still feel you're up to this and the staff deems that you can handle yourself. We can talk again then."

"I can't wait." Adam really couldn't.

"You'll have to. Because I won't let you come with me in the field in your condition." By the man's tone, it was the best offer he could make and Joseph clearly didn't like it.

Adam almost dared to hope, "You mean I can help?"

"Get some rest, and in a week we'll get started. Deal?" Joseph extended his hand to Adam.

Adam knew he wasn't getting any better, nodded, and gripped the older man's hand, "Deal."

"Okay, then we'll contact your father and…"

"Don't." Joseph raised an eyebrow at Adam. "Don't contact them. I don't have much left. I don't want them to be put in the middle of this." Adam missed them dearly, but he couldn't face them, not yet. Not until he had done everything in his power to bring his siblings home and bring the people responsible for their pain to justice.

"I can respect that." Joseph smiled sadly at him.

"So, where do we start?"

"How about from the beginning?"


End file.
